Sixth Ecumenical Council (681)
“…we likewise declare that in him [Christ] are two natural wills and two natural operations…” (Definition of Faith, September 17, 681)
Pope Agatho had considerable influence with the Sixth General Council.
For eighteen sessions, covering almost a whole year from November 680 to September 681, a church council has met in Constantinople. Posterity will know it as the Sixth Ecumenical Council, or the Third Council of Constantinople. By ecumenical council is meant “general council” or “council of the whole church.” Typically such councils issue statements called “canons” expressing their decisions.
Jesus
who do men say that I am At this hour, millions would die for Him! Why? Who is this unforgettable man called Jesus? This powerful film contains answers that may change your life.
The sixth council is no exception. At stake, once again, is the doctrine of Christ. Just who, or what, was he? Beginning even in the days of the apostles, false teachings arose about Jesus—teachings which they were at pains to refute in their letters to the churches. For example, we have Paul’s many Christological statements, including a lengthy passage in Colossians 1, John’s insistence in 1 John that Christ came in the flesh, and several chapters in the book of Hebrews proving Christ’s supremacy over angels as God’s son.
Four earlier ecumenical councils have already addressed issues relating to Christ and his nature. These have affirmed that he is both truly God and truly man, the unity of his person, his two distinct natures (divine and human), and rejected writings which would tend to undercut any of these teachings.
The present council is concerned with an error known as Monotheletism, which teaches that Christ’s human will is swamped in the divine. This teaching has led to dissention in the church, and caused emperor Constantine Pogonatus enough concern that he has gathered bishops and patriarchs (or their legates) to sort out the issues.
Old Pope Agatho has sent a long letter in which he claims Roman authority, states an orthodox position, gives scriptural examples, and casts his weight behind the position which the council will eventually adopt. The point is, that if Christ is to be truly our representative, he must be truly human and have a truly human will. Yet, it also apparent he is truly God and partakes of God’s will.
On September 17th, 681, the 447 churchmen in attendance sign a statement of faith that is both lengthy and technical. It invokes and affirms the five previous ecumenical councils and issues its own canons. Christ, the God-Man, has two wills which work in concert, one for his human nature and one for his divine. “Defining all this we likewise declare that in him are two natural wills and two natural operations [behaving] indivisibly, inconvertibly, inseparably, inconfusedly, according to the teaching of the holy Fathers.”
With the issuance of this statement, the last of the great ecumenical Christological councils is over. The church’s outline of belief about Christ is fixed. While many areas of the east will adopt some form or another of monophysitism (or miaphysitism), the church as a whole will stick to the orthodox definition. The long war for a defensible doctrine of Christ ends for the time being.
—Dan Graves
